THE CUMBERLAND ARMS

The Cumberland Arms is a weird one – It’s a great bar, the type of which you wouldn’t think exist anymore.

It does the real ale thing & has a top take on toasties & nibbly bar food. It has a live venue going on upstairs, with bands & Whose line is it anyway? type comedy capers.

All sorts of weird & wonderful stuff happens here & very often when you walk in through the door, it can feel like having gone back in time.

It is another good reason to pay a visit to Ouseburn Valley & it is just up the hill from the Cluny.

There’s a sporadic, ongoing thing with Morris type, sword wielding dancers & nights devoted to gangs of ukulele playing punters, who look like they just popped in unexpectedly & started strumming together by coincidence.

(Editors note: The Ouseburn Poletwiddlers, in full swing…)

With a well furnished, outside, sitty down bit, in winter, they’ll hire you hot water bottles & blankets at the bar if you wanna still sit out. It’s a hoot going to their audience participation busker nights – far less pompous than they sound.

The Cumberland is Old Skool in every sense & has remained virtually unchanged for decades.

There are 2 rooms downstairs, so you can escape the folkyness if you wish & as well as the live upstairs venue, they have also added a cosy B&B that gets some rave reviews.

Alongside all of these unique selling points, there is a proper intimate cosiness to this place & in the winter when the fires are lit, it feels like a completely different country.

Goes without saying that the staff are cool, as you can’t have a great bar without great staff.

The Cumberland is representative of a genuine subculture, it’s a fantastic place. A regional, possibly national treasure & at times, a parallel reality.

Without question, it’s one of the finest places to drink in Newcastle. You should check it out.